Friday, June 30, 2006

in 1520, Tenochtitlan becomes a large grave for the Spaniards who had been ruling it for a year. The Aztec citizens retook their capitol in a bloody attack on this day, killing all of the Spanish conquistadors and any Aztec who sided with them, including former Emperor Montezuma. Montezuma's brother, Cuitlahuac, assumed the throne and mobilized the great nation for a full attack on any Europeans who might follow in the footsteps of the hated Hernan Cortes, whose head Emperor Cuitlahuac had placed on a spear at the gates of Tenochtitlan. He also set his most learned priests the task of making more weapons like the Spaniards carried, and when a Spanish army arrived from Cuba two years later to check on Cortes, they were greeted with Aztec guns and routed from the mainland. With this great discovery, Emperor Cuitlahuac united all of Central America under the Aztec banner and struck fear in European hearts on the other side of the world.

in 1934, the German Nazi Party, in power for a mere two years, falls into a civil war with itself as competing factions attack each other throughout the country. The leader of the Sturm Abteilung, Ernst Roehm, was nearly killed by men under the command of Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler, both of whom wished to seize the mighty SA for their own. A small clique of industrialists attempted to oust a few of the other upper party leaders, and bands of the SA roamed the country, attacking people indiscriminately. After this night of long knives, it was readily apparent that the Nazis had lost control of themselves, and all of the elements of society that they had been repressing – labor movements, democrats, even some of the aristocrats – seized the moment and banded together in Berlin. An ambitious team was able to capture Hitler and assassinate him, which plunged the already-splintered Nazis into further infighting as all of their leaders tried to take control of the party. The revolutionary movement appointed former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher as Prime Minister of Germany and outlawed the Nazi Party. Prime Minister von Schleicher immediately asked for international assistance to quell the unrest in his country, and troops from around central and western Europe were soon putting the Nazis down. Prime Minister von Schleicher steered Germany away from the authoritarian nightmare the Nazis had been instituting and towards a more workable, French-style democracy, although he had to deal with Nazi remnants for many years after the coup.

in 2017, the Pokor arrives at the Dyson sphere in time to see the small craft they are following disappear into a bay, which seals behind it. Without a clear landing spot, even Captain Mawrao is reluctant to set down on the huge structure. “Perhaps we should look for a more apparent docking bay,” Commander Patterson suggests, and Mawrao agrees. The Pokor moves slowly across the outer surface of the sphere, scanning for any possible ingress. Now that they are this close, the crew can detect a dizzying level of activity from the sphere – strange, alien devices move about everywhere, and the space around the sphere is filled with small craft whizzing back and forth. “Nothing looks like a piloted craft,” Captain Mawrao said after they examined what must have been a hundred of the smaller ships. “Are they all automated?” Several of the scientists of both crews had been speculating about that, and brought out their theories for the Captain and Commander Patterson to hear, when a very large hole opened up directly in front of them. The Pokor's pilot said, “That not there a minute ago.” Captain Mawrao's eyes curved up, a Quarai smile. “Take us in.”

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